This month, an English Education alumnus, Regina Ramirez, was honored as the volunteer of the month at 826 Valencia! Below is the statement made by the organization honoring her efforts to support students. We’re thrilled to see our former English students making a positive impact in the world. Congratulations, Regina! 

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“Regina joined 826 Valencia through SFSU’s English education program. Throughout the semester, she excelled as a tutor in the English Learner Support program at Mission High School. Regina skillfully supported students by employing diverse learning methods, including verbal communication, written instruction, and visuals. Her outstanding work underscores the importance of creative communication for effective tutoring, especially when tutors and students don’t share a common native language!” 

The California Community College Registry's annual job fair for recruiting faculty of all disciplines was Saturday, January 27th at SFO Westin Hotel. Several SFSU graduate students from English attended. They were able to learn more about community college hiring processes and meet faculty and staff from community colleges across California. Join us at the SoCal (LAX) or NorCal (SFO) CCC Registry job fairs again next January! 

Congratulations to the English majors who made the Fall 2023 Dean’s List.  A special shoutout to Jermelyn Genove-Mangibin, a Professional Writing & Rhetoric major and one of our student assistants. Congratulations, Jermelyn. 

The newest issue of Sutro Review is Live!

A big thank you to Professor Caroline Casper and student editors, Caitlin Darke, Gabriela Pires, and Niyara Gray, for publishing another superb issue of student narratives, essays, poetry, and photography artwork. Enjoy!

Professor Vince Gotera, an 1981 graduate of our MA English Literatures program, was named the Iowa Poet Laureate (2024-2026), an award that recognizes the importance of poetry in the daily lives of Iowa’s community, and the final nominee is selected by a committee of volunteer citizens. We honored Professor Gotera by reading his poem “Magic Horses” at the closing of our Spring 2024 Department Graduation ceremony (thank you, Dr. Meg Shoerke, for your beautiful reading).  Congratulations, Dr. Gotera, and thank you for making us Gator-proud!

Ronnie Rose has been accepted to Northwestern University's Litowitz MFA in Creative Writing + MA in English Literature program! His admission comes with a full fellowship his first and third year and opportunities to teach undergraduate creative writing.  Ronnie is a writer, Fulbright fellow (Mexico 2017-18), and director at a community-based nonprofit for youth in Oakland, CA. He holds an M.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from San Francisco State University (2022), where he cultivated an interest in second-language writing development and teacher written feedback, and has worked in a variety of educational environments, including teaching at Mexico City’s second-largest public university, assisting in academic writing courses at SFSU and UC Berkeley, tutoring adolescents in East Palo Alto, and leading activist workshops across North America. He’s the co-founder of an international animal rights organization, co-creator and producer of The Green Pill podcast (now defunct), and has raised over $15 million to support homeless and systems-impacted youth, as well as for adults recovering from substance use disorders, through grant writing, capital campaigns, and funds development. Ronnie has been vegan for 18 years and lives with an ancient, 18-year-old former street dog named Ira.

James Kreiss, a double major in English and Labor Studies, received the Student Award for Excellence in Community Engagement for their work in the Starbucks Workers United Campaign!

Malleeswari Jagabattuni and Edmund Whelan presented on behalf of the ECOLE lab project on "Advantages and Challenges in using ChatGPT in Text Simplification for Children” at the 49th Annual S4 Social Science Student Symposium at CSU Sacramento. Students-collaborators on the project are Malleeswari Jagabattuni, Ava Austin, Molly Downs, Jenna Ferrario-Roeise, Mikey Pagán, Paige Peterson, Cassia Reddig, and Edmund Whelan.

The ECOLE lab students, Malleeswari Jagabattuni, Eddie Whelan and Mikey Pagan presented research project conducted in collaboration with Ava Ausin, Molly Downs, Cassia Reddig, and Jenna Ferrario 'Advantages and challenges in using ChatGPT in text simplification for Children' at the 10th Annual UC Davis Symposium on Language Research. Their submission won the best abstract award.

Congratulations to all of our Scholarship recipients for the 2023-2024 Academic Year!

Throughout the semester, SFSU students organized walkouts, demonstrations, and marches to protest violence in Gaza. Students set up an encampment on the quad and held negotiations with President Mahoney, demanding financial transparency and divestment from any institutions contributing to violence against Palestinian people. 

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More information about the student movement can be found on Students for Gaza SFSU's instagram page: @studentsforgaza_SFSU

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President Mahoney's response to student negotiations and timeline for financial disclosure work  can be found in her May 13 President's Message: "Statement on ESG Investing and Support for Freedom of Expression and Student Activism"

We’re thrilled to share that Andrew Pimental, one of PWR students, has been accepted to the LA Review of Books Publishing Workshop for this Summer! The five week course allows for undergraduates to work directly with veterans in the fields of print and digital publishing! Additionally, they have the opportunity to join one of two tracks dedicated to magazine and book production! Congratulations Andrew!

Ava Austin (BA English, Linguistics) attended the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR)  that took place in Long Beach, April 8-11, 2024. Ava presented a project on 'Faculty-Student collaboration in the ECOLE'  co-authored with Dr. Anastasia Smirnova. 

LCA Undergraduate Research Showcase

This spring, we had over 180 students from LCA participating in the Showcase, and 58 were English majors representing a range of classes: ENG 402 Intro to Professional Writing and Rhetoric, ENG 420 Intro to the Study of Language, ENG 618 Individual and Team Writing, ENG 655 Literature and the Adolescent Reader, and ENG 680 Applied Computational Linguistics. Thank you to the students for sharing their work and for faculty who encouraged their students to participate in this campus-wide event. 

We’re happy to share that English MA Linguistics student Erli Tang was accepted to the joint PhD program in Linguistics and Anthropology at University of Arizona! She’s shared her thoughts on this exciting opportunity below. Congratulations Erli! 

“I am thrilled to announce my acceptance into the University of Arizona's joint PhD program in Linguistics and Anthropology, a dream come true thanks to the boundless support of my professors and the enriching collaboration with my peers in the English department. My journey has been profoundly shaped by the solid and inspiring education I received, particularly under Dr. Teresa Pratt's mentorship, whose support was both an academic and emotional cornerstone for me. I'm also deeply grateful to Dr. Jenny Lederer and Dr. Anastasia Smirnova, who have enriched my learning experience through their classes and bolstered my application with their recommendations. The professors in the department have been knowledgeable, kind, and supportive. As I reflect on my rewarding experiences, I am filled with gratitude and excitement for the future.”

This year, the English Department was proud to announce PWR Masten Peters as the recipient of the Undergraduate Honors Award! This award recognizes undergraduate students for their outstanding academic performance and service to the profession, department, and community. This is a very important recognition, and so well-deserved! Congratulations Masten!

Short Bio:

"I'm Neil Perez, and I'm an English major with a Professional Writing and Rhetoric concentration here at San Francisco State University. I've always loved to communicate complex ideas, break down data, and to be able to create clear and effective document systems. As someone with a former background in engineering and leading virtual business teams, I've quickly developed a passion for writing highly detailed plans and documents for others to use. This concentration has provided me with many opportunities to scratch this itch, and I've experienced a substantial amount of both personal and academic growth that has given me a new and exciting direction for my career." 

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About the Internship:

"Over the Summer, I'll be working at Tesla in their energy division as a technical documentation summer intern. There, I will be working closely with both engineers and other technical writers in writing down documentation for their electric vehicle (EV) residential charger stations. I'm going to be both out on the field and in the field to watch operators design and install equipment in order to write specific installation procedures for other users to follow. Depending on the needs of the team, I'll be switching between Hayward and San Jose facilities depending on what it is I need to accomplish."

MA student Malleeswari Jagabattuni has been selected for the Edward B. Kaufmann College of Liberal & Creative Arts Scholarship award at SF State. Congratulations, MJ!

May Reese and Anastasia Smirnova presented their paper on 'Comparing ChatGPT and Humans on World Knowledge and Commonsense Reasoning Tasks' at the Conference on Computer- Human Interaction (CHI) in Honolulu, HI. May 11-16, 2024.

Project SHINE held its Final Reflection on Monday, May 6, 2024, marking another semester of community service in CCSF adult ESL classrooms.  Woot, woot to our SHINE leader Ariana Chavez (BA Linguistics ‘24, MA TESOL) and SHINE coaches: Devin Le, Sienna Adler, Jackie Zhen, May Myint, Amelia Tupua, and Jessica Phung. Thank you also to our faculty supporters: Professors Amy Latham, Anastasia Smirnova, Teresa Pratt, Wen-Chao Li, Gin Schwarz for supporting SHINE in your classes!

The following English MA students were honored with the Graduate Student Award for Distinguished Achievement. Congratulations to:

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Saramanda Swigart - MA English Literatures

Hui-Yu Wu - MA English TESOL

May Reese - MA English Linguistics